San Jose Sharks Put Together Furious Comeback but Fall Short in Game 2

The San Jose Sharks fall to the Vegas Golden Knights 5 – 3 thanks to lackluster power play and controversial call.

It only took one minute, well 58 seconds to be exact for the San Jose Sharks to be trailing in this one. Cody Eakin tallied the first goal with a wrister from the high slot off a Max Pacioretty pass coming from behind the net. Another earlier deficit against the Vegas Golden Knights, which is a trend that is becoming an extreme burden for Team Teal.

The onslaught continued with the Sharks squandering a powerplay opportunity with an errant pass from EK65 landing right on Colin Millers tape and he was able to easily trek the puck up the ice and convert on Jones. Another goal for Vegas proceeded that one, but this one came from forward Max Pacioretty off a blast near the right dot.

That’s when Team Teal decided to put their foot down and push back against their rival club. Coach Pete DeBoer pulled Martin Jones after letting 3 goals on 7 shots. Things started to settle down after Aaron Dell was placed in between the pipes for the Sharks. Momentum started to shift with the Sharks getting the better of the scoring chances which eventually translated into goals.

Team Teal exploded for 3 goals in 2:09 seconds near the end of the first frame. The first goal was scored by a streaking Logan Couture who found a perfectly placed passed by the Captain Joe Pavelski.

The second goal came courtesy of the powerplay and was notched by Tomas Hertl. He was able to successfully tip in an Erik Karlsson (who was originally credited with the goal) blast from the blue line.

The final tally of the first period was recorded by Joe Thornton after some beautiful transitional play through the neutral zone from Kane and nifty primary pass from Dillon. The San Jose Sharks headed into intermission tied after being left for dead just minutes into the game.

Team Teal continues their offensive tear right out of the gate. They seemingly scored off a Brent Burns bomb just a minute into the 2nd period but unfortunately it was waived off by a questionable goaltender interference call. The Golden Knights were able to capitalize on the man advantage with Mark Stone scoring his 3rd goal of the series. All 3 of them have been on the powerplay for Vegas.

However that goal didn’t rattle the San Jose Sharks. They were still able to generate some quality scoring chances against the Golden Knights.  The two teams exchanged blows over the course of the second but weren’t able to put anymore points on the board.

The third period was much of the same with San Jose Sharks and Golden Knights wrestling for control of the game flow. Team Teal scratched and clawed generating plenty of good looks at Marc-Andre Fluery at 5v5. However the story of this game revolved around the special teams play of the Sharks.

Team Teal was gifted a powerplay off a slashing penalty from Theodore on Meier but failed to do anything with the open ice. They surrendered the puck in their own zone when a puck off the boards landed directly on Reilly Smith’s stick blade. He easily sent it up ice where a streaking William Karlsson zoomed up ice and put it past Dell.

That would be the final goal of the game making the final score 5 – 3. Team Teal yet again faced some adversity in this one but weren’t able to turn it into a win. The San Jose Sharks head into Vegas tied 1 – 1 looking to reshape their game plan after a tough loss at the hands of the Golden Knights.

Not wanting to add fuel to the fire but there was three things that I observed during this contest that are very concerning and will cost me few hours of sleep over the next few days.

Dont Lose Sleep Over…

1. Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s health. His last play of the game was just 1:02 into the 2nd period after he blocked a Shea Theodore shot. There hasn’t been an update on his status and there most likely won’t be until later. But if the San Jose Sharks lose their defensive stop-gap they could be in trouble and needing to turn to players like Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns to take more of the defensive responsibilities.

2. The Sharks Power Play went 1/8 and allowed a ridiculously bad 2 short handed goals against the Golden Knights. They’ll need to straighten things out before they have to set up 5v4 in a raucous environment like the T-Mobile Arena.

3. Mark Stone keeps rolling as he scored another goal on the powerplay. He and his linemates continue to dominate the San Jose Sharks. This will become more of a tough task if Vlasic misses time after blocking that shot.

At 5v5 the Sharks played fairly well and were able to trade scoring chances with Vegas throughout most of the game. However their special teams failed to show up and it cost them. Expect Team Teal to work on that aspect of the game during their next practice. Their a veteran group with tremendous talent, trust that they are going to make the proper adjustments during this day off between games.